PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has received an endorsement from Mandla Ndlovu, the ANC’s provincial task team convenor in Mpumalanga, who called on him to accept nomination for a second term as the party president.
Ndlovu was speaking during the president’s visit to the Ehlanzeni Region to talk to ANC branches.
He pleaded with Ramaphosa to accept the nomination for a second term at the ANC’s national elective conference, which is set for December.
“If branches ask you to stand for a second term, please do not say no, Mr President. You are safe in the hands of Mpumalanga. Use your two hands when you are in Mpumalanga to give our people services. There is no need to use one hand to give services and to use the other hand to protect yourself. Volunteers that are here today, and structures, will protect you,” said Ndlovu.
Ramaphosa visited Mpumalanga as one of three provinces identified by the ANC leadership as hotspots that needed intervention ahead of their provincial conferences.
The Eastern Cape and KwaZulu0Natal were also identified by the party’s top brass as hotspots that needed urgent intervention.
The party president engaged with ANC structures in Mpumalanga after the disbandment of the provincial executive council, which was converted to a provincial task team.
The province has failed to convene a Provincial General Council or Provincial Conference since the departure of former ANC chairperson David Mabuza in 2018.
Ramaphosa told party supporters that the Secretary General Office will give the date for the upcoming conference of Mpumalanga.
“I will tell comrade Paul Mashatile that you want a conference now,” said Ramaphosa.
“I will soon come to your provincial conference. I will open it and bless it. I will not involve myself in your processes, you must decide the leadership as branches and find a way to unite.”
After the meeting, Ramaphosa described the gathering with ANC branches in Mpumalanga as productive and constructive.
“The branches all gathered here and I had a wonderful exchange of thoughts and views with them. It was the most wonderful meeting,” he said.
“There was a display of unity, or purpose, in the meeting.”
He said Mpumalanga has done all the preparatory work at branch level that qualified them to go to the provincial conference.
“They actually wanted a date from me and I told them that I’m not the secretary-general of the ANC. The date is set by the secretary-general’s office,” he said.
Ramaphosa declined to comment about the endorsement he received from Ndlovu, saying he preferred not to talk about it.
“I am hard of hearing these days, and I didn’t quite hear what he said,” he joked with the media.
This year is likely to be marked with tough contests within the ANC, its leagues and its allies, as almost all the structures are due for elections between now and October.
- – Inside Politics
